A Delhi court on Monday issued fresh death warrants for March 3 at 6 am against the four death row convicts--Mukesh Kumar Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Kumar Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar (31), in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case. This is the third time that a court has issued death warrants against the four convicts.
The first date of execution, January 22, was postponed to February 1 by a January 17 court order. Then the trial court, on January 31, stayed, "till further orders" the execution of the four convicts as they had not exhausted all their legal remedies. All the four convicts are currently lodged in Tihar Jail.
On February 17 (Monday), Pawan Gupta wanted to move a curative petition before the Supreme Court and mercy plea before the President, his lawyer told the Patiala Court.
The Delhi High Court on February 5 granted a week's time to the four convicts to avail of all legal remedies available to them and said that the convicts cannot be hanged separately since they were convicted for the same crime.
Mukesh told the court that he does not want to be represented by advocate Vrinda Grover, after which it appointed advocate Ravi Qazi to represent him.
Mukesh Kumar Singh: The Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government had on January 16 rejected the mercy plea of Mukesh which was then forwarded to Lieutenant Governor. The L-G had then forwarded the mercy petition to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) who in turn sent it to President Ram Nath Kovind, recommending its rejection. President Kovind had rejected the mercy petition on January 17.
Mukesh Singh had moved the mercy petition before the President after the Supreme Court had dismissed his curative petition against his conviction and death sentence. The apex court had dismissed Mukesh`s plea seeking judicial review of the rejection of his mercy petition by the President. With this decision by the top court, Mukesh exhausted the last legal remedy available to him against the death sentence.
Vinay Kumar Sharma: Vinay had filed a curative petition before the Supreme Court against the death sentence which was dismissed. On February 1, President Kovind had rejected the mercy plea of Vinay.
He had later moved the SC challenging the rejection of his mercy petition by the President claiming that the "hurried rejection" was "mala fide" and violated the letter and spirit of the Constitution. Vinay has also sought commutation of his death sentence to life imprisonment claiming that he has "developed mental illness" inside the prison due to the alleged "torture and ill-treatment".
Akshay Kumar: Akshay was the third convict in the case to file a mercy petition before the President. However, it was also rejected by the President in February. The apex court had also dismissed the curative petition of Akshay.
Pawan Gupta: Of the four convicts, Pawan has not yet availed the remedy of either curative petition or mercy plea.
The 23-year-old physiotherapy intern, who came to be known as 'Nirbhaya' (fearless), was gang-raped and savagely assaulted on the night of December 16, 2012, in a moving bus in South Delhi. She died of her injuries a fortnight later in a Singapore hospital.
Six people including the four convicts, Ram Singh and a juvenile -- were named as accused. The trial of the five adult men began in a special fast-track court in March 2013.
Ram Singh, the prime accused, allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself in Tihar jail days after the trial began. The juvenile, who was said to be the most brutal of the attackers, was put in a correctional home for three years. The juvenile was released in 2015 and sent to an undisclosed location amid concerns over a threat to his life. He, when released, was 20 years old.
Mukesh, Vinay, Akshay and Pawan were sentenced to death in September 2013 by the trial court which was challenged by them in higher courts.
